I was going through the supermarket vegetables section and I stumbled across the largest jalapenos I've ever seen. Not being one to pass up an opportunity, I grabbed a dozen or so with minimal plans at the time. When I got home, I discovered some pork sausage and smoked gouda left over in the fridge and that was all I needed to get the gray matter working. Well, that and some good Kentucky bourbon. What I ended up with was the best smoked jalapenos I've ever had. I stuffed them the day before I cooked them simply because I wasn't going to have time to do it the next night. I worried about the vinegar in the BBQ sauce softening them but it didn't seem to do much damage.
I started with 10-12 large jalapenos
Stuffing:
1 cup shredded smoked gouda
4 oz bulk pork sweet sausage
1 small onion - chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup Cookshack mild BBQ sauce
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 Lb bacon
1. Brown and drain the sausage. Set it aside to cool.
2. Heat the oil (in the same pan used to cook the sausage) until shimmering. Add the onions and cook until soft and well caramelized - about 10-15 minutes. Let them cool and add them to the sausage.
3. Add the garlic powder, cheese, and BBQ sauce to the onions and sausage and mix well.
4. Cut the tops off of the peppers and remove the seeds and pith. Observe reasonable caution when handling peppers because you might get ridiculed instead of sympathy.
5. Stuff the peppers and wrap each one with a strip of bacon. Secure the bacon with a toothpick and put the peppers in a pepper rack or find some other way to get them to stand upright.
6. Smoke cook at 225 degrees until the bacon is done - about 2-1/2 to three hours.
I used maple and cherry for the smoke - about 1-1/2 oz total.
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